Gene expression profile of the cartilage tissue spontaneously regenerated in vivo by using a novel double-network gel: Comparisons with the normal articular cartilage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We have recently found a phenomenon that spontaneous regeneration of a hyaline cartilage-like tissue can be induced in a large osteochondral defect by implanting a double-network (DN) hydrogel plug, which was composed of poly-(2-Acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid) and poly-(N, N'-Dimetyl acrylamide), at the bottom of the defect. The purpose of this study was to clarify gene expression profile of the regenerated tissue in comparison with that of the normal articular cartilage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We created a cylindrical osteochondral defect in the rabbit femoral grooves. Then, we implanted the DN gel plug at the bottom of the defect. At 2 and 4 weeks after surgery, the regenerated tissue was analyzed using DNA microarray and immunohistochemical examinations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The gene expression profiles of the regenerated tissues were macroscopically similar to the normal cartilage, but showed some minor differences. The expression degree of COL2A1, COL1A2, COL10A1, DCN, FMOD, SPARC, FLOD2, CHAD, CTGF, and COMP genes was greater in the regenerated tissue than in the normal cartilage. The top 30 genes that expressed 5 times or more in the regenerated tissue as compared with the normal cartilage included type-2 collagen, type-10 collagen, FN, vimentin, COMP, EF1alpha, TFCP2, and GAPDH genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The tissue regenerated by using the DN gel was genetically similar but not completely identical to articular cartilage. The genetic data shown in this study are useful for future studies to identify specific genes involved in spontaneous cartilage regeneration.</p

Author-Driven Approaches to Computational Narrative Design for Games

Accessible Head Mounted Displays (HMD) have provided mass access to Extended Reality (XR) content as never before. One of the key complaints from HMD owners, however, is the lack of substantial high-quality content (Moore 2017). Coupled with the domain-specific topic of presence, which describes a state beyond the concept of immersion instead with the user feeling part of the virtual world. Utilizing traditional production techniques cost and the duration of the resultant product are inextricably linked, although some progress reducing manual hours has been made with the introduction of Procedural Content Generation (PCG); the focus of this shift has been on asset creation rather than narratives (Kapadia et al. 2017). While PCG can reduce the cost of production it does not however directly increase the duration of the game. The current solution from developers has been to implement game mechanics to increase the duration of the game, leading to a rise in arcade-style wave shooters (Anon 2018), however, this solution is not applicable to long-form content such as narrative-based Role Playing Games (RPG), story-based first-person action games and interactive narratives. The intended contribution of this paper is both to describe the challenges to the academic knowledge in procedurally generated content and computational narratives but is also about studying how those approaches can be democratized, enabling wider adoption within the content creation community, with a view to their eventual use within non-entertainment sectors.Final Accepted Versio